INTHEBLACK October/November 2024 - Magazine - Page 33
MEMBER PROFILE
Patrick Sim CPA is the
second-generation managing
director of Secret Recipe
Group in Malaysia.
Secret Recipe Group is one
of Malaysia's fastest-growing
lifestyle and cafe chains.
The award-winning
franchise business has
more than 500 outlets
across multiple countries.
MY CPA BUSINESS
Sweet success
With Patrick Sim CPA at the helm, Secret Recipe in
Malaysia is tackling the challenges of digital strategy,
international expansion and menu reinvention.
Words Cameron Cooper
Photography Vignes Balasingam
Given its 26 years of business success,
Malaysian cakes and cafe chain Secret Recipe
could be excused for sticking to a tried-and-true
business formula.
However, managing director Patrick Sim CPA
is not content to stick to the status quo.
Having stepped into his current role at the
family business in late 2022, Sim is determined
to continue to expand the customer base across
the group’s two brands, Secret Recipe and
Hokkaido Baked Cheese Tart.
FAMILY TIES
Secret Recipe has come a long way since
Sim’s uncle, Dato Steven Sim, and a few
of his nephews opened the doors to the
business’s first store in 1997 in SS2, a suburb
of Petaling Jaya.
The family spotted a gap in the market
for a lifestyle cafe where customers could
enjoy gourmet cakes and coffee in a lovely
setting. The business gained a first-mover
advantage before the likes of Starbucks and
Coffee Bean entered the Malaysian market
a year later.
“We were lucky to start early,” says Sim,
who heads up the second generation of
family members now guiding the business.
“It is so much more competitive nowadays,
but we have a very strong and trusted brand
in the market.”
Today, in addition to about 380 Malaysian
stores, the Secret Recipe group has 150
outlets internationally across countries such
as Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Brunei,
Maldives and Bangladesh, employing about
3400 people.
With 10 family members working for
Secret Recipe, Sim must factor in familial
relationships. “The good part is that there
are very strong levels of trust between us,”
he says.
“We have some disagreements on how
to move the business forward or how things
should work. We try to make everything
very business oriented, not personal.”
With a mix of generations among the
family members in the business, Sim is
conscious of providing ongoing operational
and leadership training across all facets of
the group as part of succession planning.
“They are young and have great ideas,” he says.
“Each generation of the family is driving
the next generation forward.”
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